Ms. Luisa

Ms. Luisa Eats is a hit cabaret comedy show created by Genné that has performed at the Edinburgh and Minnesota Fringe Festival, in San Francisco and New York City since 2008.

The show was inspired by the life of early 20th century Italian opera diva, Luisa Tetrazzini, who was known for consuming heaping plates of pasta before a performance and who also had a tumultuous love life. The show is peppered with Genné’s uproarious character improvisation, operatic, folk and popular songs from around the world. Her saucy use of food and humor and playful interactions with the audience showcase her comic gifts and singing. Ms. Luisa continues to grace stages locally in Minneapolis with a Vaudeville show, performing with the best side-show artists, drag queens, improv actors, dancers, and skilled musicians around and the most delicious food she can find.

Ms. Luisa eats, takes a journey of self discovery | City Pages

"Shortly after a 2008 trip to Berlin, where she was inspired to become a cabaret performer, Genné created the character of Ms. Luisa. A friend suggested basing her on Luisa Tetrazzini, an opera singer from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tetrazzine was not only known as a great singer, but also as a peculiar personality. She loved food, did weird exercises in her apartment, and once even dressed up in drag in order to escape her husband. Genné was drawn to the idea of her…"

My lunch with Luisa Tetrazzini at Jakeeno's Pizza & Pasta

"For this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival, we focused on the true newbs. These are artists who are dipping their toes in for the first time, who haven’t achieved the press and PR savvy that comes with experience, or who are simply too young and too green to have made a name for themselves…"

Fringe Festival: Shake it up | Star Tribune

"Ash Land" showed how inventive and intelligent theater artists can be when they put their muscle behind the work. Tamara Ober's "Sin Eater" was virtuosic, and even something as silly as "Ms. Luisa Eats" or "Mary Mack's Anti One-Woman Show" illustrate how we need the wacky/tacky stuff…"